We Will End Strong

As Labor Day approaches, you can feel the pace of the year begin to speed up. The summer of 2022 was just too damn hot! A rough weather summer for the Southern half of the U.S. The shows in the Northern tier of states had OK weather, but a few of the festivals were just so hot as to be miserable.

Fall … the fun season of the year. Football is back, along with Halloween, Thanksgiving and comfortable outdoor concerts. Kenny Chesney seems to be the star of summer, and his last show of the stadium season is this weekend. Kenny probably played to a million paying customers since spring! Garth Brooks played fewer shows, but had some big numbers too.

Brad Paisley’s European shows were filled to capacity. The internet has allowed that fan base to grow, and they seem to really know the music. It will be the beginning of spring in Australia when Brad goes down under. Kane Brown is going on a separate Aussie run. Keith Urban plays his home country before Christmas.

Fall will see Luke Bryan doing his Farm Tour again. Did you see where Luke is now into the popcorn business? Fendt heavy machinery has partnered with Luke in that business for a limited time. BoldyGrownGoods.com is the web site to buy Luke’s homegrown popcorn in two flavors, Bold Butter and Chart Toppin’ Churro. He grows the corn on his South of Nashville farm. Luke says, “Maybe one day, if I’m the modern day Orville Redenbacher, this will turn into a multibillion [dollar] popcorn enterprise!”

Luke has Fendt tractors/combines. His 724 Vario is a quarter million dollar machine. Country boys can survive! My my!

Gary LeVox is going down the Country music road again. “Get Down Like That” is the song written by several hot Music Row songsmiths. It sure sounds like a hit!

In case you missed it, Stevie Nicks is playing Huntsville, AL on Halloween night, October 31st. It’s AXS.com not Ticketmaster, on sale Friday. She’s playing that new outdoor amphitheatre, The Orion, 90 minutes south of BNA.

Elton John is at Nissan Stadium, and Billy Joel in Atlanta. Big time shows. Look at the big time prices, and people are paying! Live Nation the subject of a huge article

in the Los Angeles Times on the subject of concert security. Congress is taking a look.

Whatever happened to Country music’s marriage with NASCAR? Maybe I’m not just looking in the right places.

And another question, why is BMI doing a 10% head count reduction in staff? Do they know something we don’t know?

And with football, I hope we send out some great folks to do the national anthem at the World Series and NFL games. My biggest pet peeve is hearing the announcer say “and now Country music superstar XXXX, and you have either never heard of them or ask yourself, “superstar?” The CMA needs to push the stars to get out there and be the face of Country music. It’s great PR. Hard song, but when not over sung, as some Country “superstars” have done lately, it gets people talking.

Country music has never gone wrong being patriotic!